The Need

The federal “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law in July 2025, set in motion the largest cuts to Medicaid in the program's history. Oregon stands to lose $3.3 billion in federal Medicaid funding this biennium alone. Beginning in 2027, new work requirements will put hundreds of thousands of Oregonians at risk of losing their health coverage, not because they no longer qualify, but because they get caught in a maze of recurring paperwork, where a single filing error can cost them coverage. Officials estimate upwards of 400,000 Oregonians could lose their insurance, many for nothing more than a missed deadline.

At the same time, the enhanced tax credits that kept marketplace premiums down expired at the end of 2025, which has driven up the cost of basic coverage up by hundreds of dollars a month, already pushing more than 20,000 Oregonians off their plans entirely.

Oregon is projected to see one of the largest increases in its uninsured rate of any state in the country, and Central and Eastern Oregon will be ground zero.

In Malheur County, more than half the population is on Medicaid. In Central Oregon, seven out of ten patients at St. Charles Health System's hospitals are on Medicare or Medicaid, and the region's largest community health center reports that a majority of its patients rely on Medicaid for coverage. Hospitals in Madras and Hermiston have already been flagged nationally as at risk of closure. And Deschutes County's population has grown by tens of thousands of people since 2020, nearly all from in-migration, straining our healthcare infrastructure, which was already stretched thin.

When people lose coverage, they don't stop needing care. They turn to safety-net providers like Planned Parenthood. Our Ontario location is already absorbing a surge of patients from Idaho, where access to reproductive health care is severely restricted. As insurance erodes across the region, demand at our Bend and Ontario health centers will only grow at the very moment the system around us is contracting.

The question of whether PPCW's Bend and Ontario health centers can meet the needs of our community, as access to care erodes and demand surges, depends increasingly on philanthropic investment.

This is the moment the Unbreakable Campaign was built for. Not to respond to a single crisis, but to ensure that Planned Parenthood's system of care in our region is strong enough, stable enough, and resourced enough to meet whatever comes next. With your investment and our commitment to Central and Eastern Oregon patients, we can truly be unbreakable.